The Distillation

Now rigorously designed experiments confirm that while recreational use can be dangerous hallucinogens can actually change people for the better—often permanently.

What’s remarkable about the recent psilocybin experiments is not just their dramatic effects but the time frame. Personality shifts tend to be slow and gradual in adulthood, barring a sudden trauma, says University of Oregon psychologist Sanjay Srivastava. Over the course of years or decades, events like marriage or parenthood can cause subtle alterations. But psychedelics can induce a positive personality shift in a single day—insta-change. “There’s never been a relatively discrete laboratory intervention that’s been shown under experimentally controlled conditions to change a personality dimension,” says psychologist Matthew Johnson of Johns Hopkins, an author of the 2011 study. “That’s pretty dramatic.”From the Article: Mind your body: the shroom shiftPublished by: Psychology TodayOriginal Link https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201305/mind-your-body-the-shroom-shiftArtwork Fair Use: By Shahram Sharif - green, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10381773

The study, conducted by researchers in the University at Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions and Research Institute on Addictions (RIA), appeared in the online edition of Psychology of Addictive Behaviors in August. The study’s lead author is Philip H. Smith, PhD, a recent doctoral graduate of the UB School of Public Health and Health Professions and now associate research scientist in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University. It is based on research data collected by lead investigator Kenneth Leonard, PhD, director of the UB Research Institute on Addictions. The study was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to Leonard and a grant to Smith from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "While couples who reported marijuana use also reported less marital aggression, previous research with these couples found that couples who smoked marijuana were not less likely to divorce. In addition, the current study does not address the potential impact of parental marijuana use on children in the family and other problems associated with daily marijuana use. The most frequent use reported by couples in this particular study was once a week.".From the Article: Study finds less domestic violence among married couples who smoke potPublished by: Buffalo UniversityOriginal Link http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2014/08/031.htmlArtwork Fair Use: By Ben Pollard [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

"Before I started writing about food, my focus was really on the human relationship to plants," Pollan explained "Not only do plants nourish us bodily—they nourish us psychologically."

The various crackdowns on witches, many of whom use psychedelic drugs, should go under that rubric of a drug war. Drug wars are always with us. You can't really study psychedelics without considering some big, existential questions. "I don't think of myself as a spiritual person. In fact, I'm kind of spiritually retarded. But I am at a period in life when you start thinking about some of these issues.The first thing you learn about consciousness is that nobody knows shit about consciousness. It could be any number of things. Physicists speculate that it's a property of the universe like matter and energy. This is a pretty wild idea. But they also believe there are seven other dimensions that we're not aware of, occupying our universe right alongside this one.From the Article: Michael Pollan explains why psychedelic drugs are the ultimate meal for your mindPublished by: Mother JonesOriginal Link http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/06/michael-pollan-psychedelic-magic-mushrooms-cancer-psilocybinArtwork Fair Use: By R. A. Nonenmacher (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons7/24/2016

Although there are still research bans on the drugs, scientists are getting creative about obtaining funding, while governments are facing increasing pressure to allow medical research on psychedelic substances.

After the ’80s and ’90s, LSD went away for a little bit—people call it the LSD drought of the 21st century. I think it fell a little bit off the public radar in some ways. So it was sort of available for reinvention—obviously not a complete reinvention, because there’s been an ongoing counterculture—but in the public mind there was the possibility to reinvent LSD in a way closer to how it was conceived of, as a tool for therapy.From the Article: America's "Psychedelic Spring" - Why are these drugs growing in cultural importance again?Published by: AlternetOriginal Link http://www.alternet.org/drugs/americas-psychedelic-spring-why-are-drugs-growing-cultural-importanceArtwork Fair Use: By Daniel Neal from Sacramento, CA, US (Amanita Muscaria Spore Print) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons7/24/2016

ECfES

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